‘Daredevil’ is Getting Rebooted Whether You Want it or Not

Previous to becoming their own studio, the way Marvel Comics negotiated their deals was that you had to keep a project going in order to retain the rights to sequels, etc. Which explains why Columbia Pictures has rebooted 'The Amazing Spider-Man' and why Fox is trying to hold on to The Fantastic Four and Daredevil. So now Fox has got David Slade and a writer attached to a 'Daredevil' reboot.

As Deadline Hollywood broke today, David James Kelly will be penning the new script for Slade. They offer no credits for the writer, and the IMDb offers no obvious Kelly for the penmanship. One of their listings offers someone who's done some shorts, one lists someone who's done only one short, while the third has done some post-production assisting. It could be one or none of them.

For both Fox and Sony, keeping these rights in their hands may be more important than making money in the shorthand. The first 'Daredevil' made over a hundred million - as did both 'Fantastic Four' films - while Spider-Man has been a cash machine for Columbia. Letting go of these properties means letting someone else take a crack at them, and in our current cinematic environment, rebooting and resetting is so common that the second those rights lapse, surely Marvel will redo them. So why let go? And so we get more Daredevil, whether it's wanted or not.